DEMONS

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist and a magician with the same delight.

C.S. Lewis

Nowhere in the New Testament are believers ever depicted as living in servile fear of demons, that is precisely the state from which they have been delivered by the gospel.

Melvin Tinker

Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 172. Used by Permission.

Paul held the demonic rulers responsible for Christ’s death. He assumes that these powers of Satan were working behind the scenes to control the course of events during the Passion Week. It was not a part of Paul’s purpose to explain exactly how these demonic rulers operated. At the very least we can imagine they were intimately involved by exerting their devious influence in and through Judas, Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas, and by inciting the mob. Demonic victory over God’s plan by putting Christ to death failed. The powers did not apprehend the full extent of God’s wisdom – how the Father would use the death of Christ to atone for sin, raise Him victoriously from the dead and create the church. Least of all did they envisage their own defeat!

Clinton E. Arnold
Taken from: Powers of Darkness, ©1992, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com. p. 104.

Demon possession is a condition in which one or more demons inhabits the body of a human being, and they can at will control that being.

John MacArthur

Notwithstanding what has been said, many Christians remain functional deists. They don’t deny that God exists or that there is a spiritual realm in which angels and demons are active. They simply live as if neither God nor spiritual beings of either sort have any genuine, influential, interaction with them. God isn’t dead, but He might as well be. Angels and demons might exist, but what does that have to do with my life?

Sam Storms
Confronting Spiritual Warfare, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

Why do we deny the possibility of redemption for fallen angelic beings?

1. There is no record of such in Scripture.

2. There is no record in Scripture of demonic repentance.

3. The impact of the cross on demons is always portrayed as judgment, never salvation (nowhere do we read of justification, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, regeneration, etc. being true of any angelic being).

4. Hebrews 2:14-17; Revelation 5:8-14.

Sam Storms
Angels, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com, Used by Permission.